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  • K

    Kristine RivallApr 5, 2012 at 11:06 am

    I seriously had to stop myself and reaffirm that I was reading the Spectator here for a moment and not the Flipside.
    Aside from how truly unprofessional and unnecessarily aggressive this article is, you are also terribly misinformed.
    You are arguing that people are blindly following a trend, and yet you are doing the extact same thing in this article – you are blindly following the criticisms for Kony 2012 posted online by others. It honestly just looks like you copied and pasted the criticisms straight from the “Visible Children” blog which the author admits is largely opinions. Did you even take the time to read the intensely long RESPONSE Invisible Children has posted to half of these ridiculous claims?! http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html?

    And I honestly couldn’t even believe you compared this campaign to Hitler’s mass genocide. How did the two even compare in your head? Invisible Children is calling upon a global community that protects each other, based on the fundamental human fact that all people are created equal. Which is, even if you don’t agree with Kony 2012, is a fact I believe everyone (who has a brain and a heart) could agree is an amiable goal. And it is fundmentally different than Hitler’s, or Stalin’s ideas of political control. This is a HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE. How DARE you compare it to mass genocide and politication authoritarianism.

    You owe Ms. D’Water an apology, and you owe it to yourself to educate yourself further about the issue.

    Reply
  • K

    Kathy KysarMar 30, 2012 at 11:05 pm

    It is unbelievable that you actually compared Invisible Children to Hitler’s Third Reich. Oh well, it takes a fool to argue with a fool. (I bet you listen to Rush, too.)

    Reply
  • T

    Tyler J. HendersonMar 30, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    You are taking the stance that Ms. D’Water was referring to the fact that any change, positive or negative, is a good change. That is downright unfair of you to attack that stance based on the fact that she left out the word “positive” in that statement. What she was trying to say is that “If we sit back and constantly criticize movements that are calling for POSITIVE change, then we are doing humanity an astronomical disservice.” Isn’t it safe to say that she obviously meant that? Are you trying to tell me that you think that Ms. D’Water would be in support of Hitler because he wanted change? YOU, Mr. Pellegrino, are the one who is ignorantly citing the issue. You saw a window of opportunity and took a cheapshot at someone doing what she felt was right. You also said this in your article.

    “To start, Ms. D’Water pointed out that Invisible Children spends 80 percent of their budget on programs, and of that, 37 percent of that goes to “projects on the ground.” She argues it is completely justified that 43 percent is spend on “advocacy and awareness” because they are “an integral part of Invisible Children.”
    Unfortunately, the advocacy and awareness she is referring to is mostly making films and promoting them. I understand that getting people aware of the situation in Uganda is important, but I find it hard to justify spending more money on this than actively trying to help the cause.”

    The largest reason that the world knows who Joseph Kony is and what he stands for is IC’s awareness and films! Invisible Children never claims to be something that they are not, with their mission statement saying that they use film and social media to end this conflict. Also, IC does not directly fund the Ugandan Military. They send people to support and organize their efforts to stop Joseph Kony, but never armed them. They also work with that military because it is the only somewhat organized military in the whole of central Africa, and they have had experience fighting the LRA in the past.

    I understand the right to opinion in this issue. People can see it from whatever side they choose. I just ask that you take a step back and think about what you are accusing Ms. D’Water and Invisible Children of. Taking one sentence from an article out of context does not make Ms. D’Water’s article any less credible.

    Reply
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